An organization that owns a small plane that crashed into two downtown Anchorage office buildings says the pilot didn’t seek authorization to use the search-and-rescue aircraft and took it without permission.
Civil Air Patrol national spokeswoman Julie DeBardelaben said today that Pilot Doug Demarest did not make a request to fly, as required by the organization.
Demarest was the only person killed when his Cessna 172 clipped a building housing the law firm Dorsey & Whitney on Dec. 29th, then slammed into another building before most area businesses had opened for the day.
Family spokeswoman Jahna Lindemuth has said the death was a suicide.
The 42-year-old Demarest was flying a plane owned by the Civil Air Patrol after taking it from its hangar at Merrill Field, a small airport on the edge of downtown.
Dorsey & Whitney reopened its offices today, almost a week after the crash.
